标签： Suriname

On Tuesday, two leading parliamentary faction leaders from Suriname — Jerrel Pawiroredjo of the National Party of Suriname (NPS) and Asis Gajadien of the Progressive People’s Party (VHP) — delivered pointed, urgent questions to the national government during a sitting of the National Assembly. The inquiry centers on claims of inappropriate political meddling in the operations of state-linked enterprises and the broader domestic financial sector, triggered by recent actions taken by the Surinamese president targeting the Board of Commissioners of the national insurance firm Self Reliance.

Lawmakers have characterized the president’s move as a deeply troubling development that threatens long-standing principles of good governance and transparent corporate oversight. “Shareholding carries responsibility, not unchecked absolute control,” the parliamentarians emphasized in their questioning. According to unconfirmed reporting from local outlet Starnieuws, the controversial intervention is expected to be reversed in the near term, with all formal correspondence related to the plan also withdrawn.

A leaked letter from the president to Albert Jubitana, president-commissioner of Self Reliance, reveals that acting on behalf of the Surinamese state, which holds shares in the company, the head of state pushed for an emergency general meeting of shareholders to be convened. A key item added to the proposed meeting agenda is the dismissal of multiple sitting members of the Board of Commissioners. The request specifically calls for a full review of the performance of board members, with an eye toward potentially removing several from their posts.

In the correspondence, the president cites Article 23 of Self Reliance’s corporate bylaws, which formally grants shareholders the right to request an extraordinary general meeting. The letter also demands the board turn over internal records on ongoing deliberations and disclose the legal basis for recent decisions the board has made.

Critics of the president’s action have raised serious questions about the appropriate boundaries of shareholder influence, particularly in this case: the Surinamese state does not hold a controlling majority stake in the insurer, instead owning only approximately 40 percent of outstanding shares.

Beyond the insurer itself, concerns have also been raised about potential political pressure on the Central Bank of Suriname. Observers warn that unchecked political influence could erode the central bank’s regulatory independence, creating significant unneeded risks to the overall stability of Suriname’s financial sector. In their inquiry, the parliamentary leaders have demanded the national government provide full transparency around the intervention, as well as a clear, legally sound justification for the president’s actions.

A major political controversy has erupted in Suriname after the European Union rejected two of the country’s key agricultural export shipments in just four days, triggering fierce criticism of the government’s failed food safety regulation from lawmakers in the National Assembly (DNA).

The rejected products, red pepper and yardlong bean, failed EU entry checks due to containing pesticide residues that exceeded the bloc’s strict safety limits. Lawmakers from across the political spectrum have warned that this failure is not just an international trade issue, but an immediate threat to domestic public health, with one senior parliamentarian saying the current broken system is actively poisoning the Surinamese population.

During Wednesday’s public parliamentary session, legislators drew a direct line between the EU rejections and deep, structural flaws in Suriname’s domestic food safety monitoring regime. NDP parliamentarian Jennifer Vreedzaam led the criticism, leveling sharp blame at Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (LVV) Minister Mike Noersalim for the government’s inaction on this long-recognized problem.

VHP lawmaker Cherryl Dijksteel emphasized that the incident confirms a fundamental breakdown in the country’s food control infrastructure. “If we cannot stop banned substances from entering the supply chain, detect residue limit breaches, or inspect products before they reach markets, we have to ask: does our current system work at all?” Dijksteel said. She pressed the government to answer a series of urgent, detailed questions about the incident, including whether the responsible exporters have been identified, whether products from the same farms are being retested for domestic sale, and how the country can improve product traceability. “You cannot run effective control if you do not know where a product comes from,” she stressed.

A core unresolved question at the heart of the debate is whether agricultural products are actually tested before they are distributed domestically or exported. If pre-market testing does occur, lawmakers say, the failure to catch the excessive pesticide residues points to major gaps in inspection quality and process. If testing does not occur at all, that indicates a complete failure to deliver the most basic level of consumer protection.

Vreedzaam and VHP colleague Dew Sharman argued that Minister Noersalim and the broader government cannot be allowed to avoid accountability for this failure. Vreedzaam called for immediate corrective action, noting that no recalls have been issued for potentially contaminated products sold domestically. “Nothing has been done. We haven’t seen any products pulled from store shelves, which means contaminated goods are still sitting there for consumers to buy. That can only mean one thing: we are poisoning our own people,” Vreedzaam said.

Dijksteel added that the crisis is entirely avoidable: the problem of unsafe pesticide residues has been recognized as a top priority for years in the strategic plan of the National Institute for Food Safety Suriname (NIVS), and global development programs including the STDF project have already mapped out clear solutions. “We know what the problems are, we already have the solutions worked out, but nothing is being implemented,” she said.

The consequences of this inaction stretch far beyond the two rejected shipments, lawmakers warned. Beyond the immediate damage to Suriname’s reputation as a reliable agricultural exporter, unregulated pesticide residues pose a long-term threat to the health of the domestic population. Dijksteel called the fact that EU inspectors, not local regulators, detected the breaches particularly alarming. “This means our system is failing at its most basic core function: protecting the consumer,” she explained.

Criticism has centered almost entirely on the LVV ministry, which holds formal responsibility for food safety oversight and enforcement. The demand for immediate government intervention has grown louder, with Dijksteel noting the issue has long outgrown the stage of being a simple technical problem. “This is a governance failure. The question is no longer whether there is a problem, it is why nothing has been done to fix it,” she said.

Suriname’s government is now facing widespread pressure to deliver concrete, immediate policy changes: strengthening pesticide use monitoring, closing gaps in food safety inspection, protecting public health, and rebuilding trust with both domestic consumers and international trade partners.

The Progressive Reform Party (VHP), Suriname’s major ruling political party, has confirmed the appointment of Glenn Paul Oehlers as the new chair of its national party board. The official appointment was finalized during an emergency board meeting held on May 4, 2026, a process triggered by the recent unexpected passing of Chandrikapersad Santokhi, former President of Suriname and long-serving VHP chair.

To preserve uninterrupted party operations and maintain consistent delivery on the party’s political commitments to the Surinamese public, the VHP national board convened urgently to address the sudden leadership vacancy. Per the party’s official statutes, a two-thirds majority vote was cast to approve an immediate appointment to fill the open chair position, rather than leaving the role vacant ahead of the next scheduled party congress.

Under the party’s internal succession rules, deputy chairs move up in ranking to fill senior leadership openings. Oehlers, who previously served as the party’s first deputy chair and designated successor to the top role, was the unanimous candidate selected to take over full leadership responsibilities.

The vacancy left by Oehlers’ promotion to chair was also filled in line with party statutes, with remaining deputy chairs advancing in their pre-established order of succession.

Oehlers’ appointment is classified as interim, pending formal final approval at the next VHP party congress. His interim term will run through at most May 29, 2027, when the party’s regular scheduled national board elections are set to take place.

In an official statement released after the meeting, the VHP emphasized that the swift appointment ensures uninterrupted governing stability for the party. Under Oehlers’ leadership, the party will continue its core work advancing public welfare for all Surinamese communities, strengthening democratic institutions and the rule of law, and driving inclusive sustainable development for the Republic of Suriname.

In a press briefing held earlier this week, Suriname’s Minister of Justice and Police Harish Monorath has laid out the stark challenges facing the country’s national police force, including a persistent staffing shortage and widespread exodus of experienced personnel to higher-paying roles abroad, while revealing that authorities quietly tolerate banned side work for officers to help them make ends meet. The comments came during a promotion ceremony Monday at the National Police Training Center, where 205 new recruits were formally elevated to the rank of Extraordinary Police Officer (BAVP).

Minister Monorath told reporters that for the police force to operate at full effectiveness across the country, its ideal total strength would sit at around 5,000 active officers. As of the latest count, however, the entire corps only numbers just over 2,700 personnel – less than 55% of the workforce needed to fulfill all core public safety mandates. Compounding this gap is a steady brain drain that the department has been unable to reverse: every year, more than 300 trained officers leave the force to take up positions elsewhere, most commonly in neighboring countries or other overseas locations where compensation packages are far more competitive than domestic salaries. Currently, the force can only recruit and train roughly 300 new officers annually to replace departing staff, while around 20 more personnel leave each month in search of better working conditions and higher pay, almost always outside Suriname’s borders. Monorath even noted that a common early warning sign of an officer planning to exit the force is a request for personal leave without objection, as officers prepare to transition to their new roles.

Addressing longstanding public debates over off-duty work for police and military personnel, Monorath clarified that while formal Dutch Caribbean law explicitly prohibits civil servants from holding secondary employment, the government has maintained a de facto tolerance policy to allow low-paid officers to supplement their incomes. “What people choose to do during their own free time is not something I can comment on or control,” the minister stated. He added that most police officers work rotating shift schedules, and the vast majority hold multiple jobs to cover basic living costs. Many officers take on private security work for gold mining companies, for example, while others travel to the country’s interior to earn extra income. He also refuted recent media reports claiming that Jean ‘Saya’ Mixon, one of his four appointed advisors, received or will receive police security protection, calling the claims completely untrue.

Public criticism of off-duty security work has grown in recent years, with critics arguing that when police or military personnel work for private third parties – particularly in Suriname’s resource-rich interior, where conflict over gold mining concessions is common – it creates major potential conflicts of interest that undermine public trust in state security institutions. Monorath acknowledged that the line between official duties and personal free time is not always clear cut when it comes to secondary work. However, he stressed that the department will take strict disciplinary action against any civil servant found to be carrying out unauthorized secondary work during their official paid working hours.

When we talk about national governance, our attention automatically goes to the president, vice president, and cabinet ministers. These are the public faces of power: they announce policy, sign official documents, and deliver public accountability. But anyone seeking to understand how power actually operates in practice has to look far past the familiar names and faces that dominate daily news cycles. Behind every elected official lies an extensive network of unelected actors, and it is within these behind-the-scenes circles that much of the real decision-making takes place.

This pattern repeats itself every time a new government takes office. Hundreds of political operatives shift into new positions, as party loyalists who provided unwavering support during election campaigns are rewarded for their service after victory at the polls. Roles are carved up, new positions are created, and influence is locked in for key insiders. This is the very system that current ruling coalition promised to reform, campaigning under the slogan *Tra fas’ de en nyun pasi* (New path, clean path) that pledged full transparency and open governance. Yet time and again, it is not the elected cabinet ministers who shape this network of influence — it is unelected advisors and close confidants. These actors, whether they hold a formal title or not, wield enormous tangible power. They control the placement of candidates for key government positions, regardless of whether those candidates are qualified for the roles they are given. It should come as no surprise, then, that persistent administrative problems continue to fester across the country, such as the ongoing anomaly in Nickerie, where two district commissioners are on the public payroll but only one can actually carry out official duties.

Those who believe all government policy is developed in formal meeting rooms are only getting half the story. The most influential actors in the President’s Office are widely recognized to be Faisel Abdoelgafoer and Sergio Akiemboto, operating through a tangled web of formal and informal channels that guide decision-making. Too often, unqualified candidates are placed on the boards of state-owned enterprises, a pattern that has led to a string of high-profile blunders in recent years. One of the most recent missteps involved Minister Harish Monorath and the Saya project, yet the minister faced no consequences for the incident. He escaped unscathed largely because he enjoys the unwavering backing of coalition leader and ABOP party chief Ronnie Brunswijk. Brunswijk not only maintains firm control over his own party but also holds the entire governing coalition in a chokehold, blocking action to address longstanding issues at state-owned firms Grassalco and EBS.

In many cases, key decisions are drafted, adjusted, and finalized long before they ever appear on the agenda for an official government vote. Just as banks are required to know not just their customers but the full network of connections around them, the public deserves to examine the full network of people that surround the nation’s top elected leaders. That is where private interests intersect with public policy, that is where backroom deals are struck, and that is where the overall direction of the country is ultimately set. Across every administration, there are advisors and holders of key positions who prioritize advancing their own personal agendas over the public good. Candidates are placed in roles not to challenge bad decisions or offer independent perspective, but simply to carry out the orders handed down from insiders. This creates a system where formal responsibility is visible to the public, but actual influence remains diffuse and hidden from view.

To date, the current administration has yet to present a clear, unified policy agenda for the country, thanks in large part to bitter infighting over competing interests within the coalition — disputes that are particularly intense in the housing development sector. The ongoing conflict over the country’s Fisheries Inspection Institute remains unresolved, while state-owned water utility Canawaima has been mired in quiet dysfunction for months.

It is long past time for the public to stop only looking at the “display window” of formal government, while blunders and mismanagement pile up behind closed doors. The real work of governance happens far from the public eye: in rooms with no press cameras, in unrecorded phone calls, in informal agreements that are never written down but still shape policy and outcomes. As long as we pretend that only elected officials set the direction of government, we are only fooling ourselves. Power does not only reside in formal job titles. It lives in access, in access, in personal connections, in who you can call and who calls you back. The critical question for Suriname is not who holds the top formal offices — it is who is really pulling the strings.